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Different Services Within Uber And Lyft

Let’s talk now about two Uber services that it would help new drivers to know more about. uberPOOL and uberEATS.

uberPOOL and Lyft Line

uberPOOL, and the Lyft equivalent called Lyft Line, is pretty much what it sounds like. It’s basically a carpool service where riders share rides with other riders in order to save a couple of bucks on their trips. Lyft Line is the Lyft equivalent.

It’s for people who want to pay less for their rides, which is kind of crazy because the rides are so cheap already! But for passengers who have more time than they do money, this is the way a lot of them choose to go.

Basically, a passenger requests a Pool ride and they share it with other people. Up to four people total can be in your car at any one time.

What most new (and veteran) drivers want to know about uberPOOL is how they can avoid it! It’s a pretty universal sentiment that drivers hate it. There are two ways to avoid it, one a little better than the other.

Tip: If you won’t to avoid uberPOOL totally, get a higher-level car and don’t driver for uberX anymore. You can’t get uberPOOL requests if you’re not driving as an uberX driver.

When a call comes in, it will indicate whether it’s a Pool ride or not. If it is, you can simply decline the call by not accepting it. Although you might not want to miss out on the trip. So, there is another way you can avoid pool calls.

The other way is to go ahead and accept the Pool call, but the minute the passenger gets in the car and you start the trip – you go into the driver app and set it to “offline” – which means they will not send you any new calls until the current trip you’re on ends.

That’s the best way to avoid Pool calls. You’ll actually pick up a pool passenger but if you indicate through the app that you want to go offline as soon as this trip is over, they won’t send you any additional passengers during the trip.

If you do it that way, you avoid having a low acceptance rate. So, that’s really the best way to avoid pool trips.

Why Do Drivers Hate uberPOOL and Lyft Line So Much?

There are many reasons, but they basically boil down to two things. Pool trips are more work for less money. And that’s the bottom line.

Here’s what happens from the driver’s point of view. They get a ping, they pick up the passenger and start heading toward the passenger’s location. Somewhere along the way they get another ping which, for is a big distraction while you’re driving. Because getting a ping doesn’t just involve touching a big round button on your phone’s screen.

It involves touching that button to accept the trip, then your phone gets tied up in coming up with new navigation instructions while in the meantime you continue driving. By the time the phone finishes the re-routing process, it might tell you that you should have turned at the last block… you know, the one you just zipped past!

That causes a whole other headache. Because now, you either have to stop and pull over to the side of the road, which might cause all kinds of risks, so your phone can catch up and come up with new instructions. Or you keep driving and you keep missing turns because your phone can’t process the new route fast enough!

In other words, it’s a big, big pain. And it’s dangerous because it’s so distracting to the driver.

What usually ends up happening is that the driver has to make a U turn, or its equivalent in left hand turns, to go back to the location of the second pickup. And this usually entails a big slow down in the speed the driver is able to drive. And that in turn lowers his earnings. Because the quicker you can drive the miles the more you’ll make in any given period of time. The longer it takes to drive the miles, the less you’ll earn per minute and per hour.

That’s the bottom line as to why most drivers hate uberPOOL so bad. Uber is earning extra money because they have two passengers paying for the trip. Each passenger pays at a discount, like 60% of the cost, but it adds up to a net gain for Uber. But there is no premium or bonus paid to the driver that’s worth the hassle. Recently Uber instituted a per-passenger pickup fee, where they pay the driver a little money for each additional pickup he has to do. But the problem with that is, their fee is only $0.50 per pickup in some markets. It ranges from $0.50 – $1.00 across the country.

But whether its 50 cents or a dollar – it’s just not worth it for the drivers.

Then, there are many additional problems. For instance, you’re putting two or more strangers together in the back seat of your car. Most uberX cars don’t have a lot of room in the backseat as it is… so these strangers end up sitting uncomfortably close to each other! If often times leads to either great discomfort for the passengers and sometimes even to open conflict between them.

And you can bet that if two passengers get into some conflict while they’re in your car – you the driver are going to get a very low rating… for something that was in no way your fault! That’s another reason drivers hate uberPOOL. The potential for lower ratings through no fault of the driver, is very high.

uberEATS

uberEATS is a food delivery service. Customers can order from any of the restaurants in their area that have partnered with Uber for deliveries and have food delivered to their home, work or wherever they are.

The pay is super low for this work and drivers who drive for uberX would for the most part prefer to drive for uberX as the pay is a little better. But there are times when driving for uberEATS might make sense. For instance, maybe you’re just tired of driving passengers around and you need a break from it. uberEATS is a good way to get a little quality alone time while giving you a reason to get out of your car and walk around a bit. Because you have to usually get out and walk into the restaurants to pick up the customer’s order.

But, unlike some of the other food delivery apps, with uberEATS, you can’t see what the customer is ordering at all. So, you have absolutely no idea if it’s going to be worth your time. They may just be ordering a burrito. But there’s only so much you are going to get tipped on a $6 order! And tipping is the only way uberEATS drivers can make any money. Other companies, such as Door Dash, show drivers what the customer is ordering when the call comes in. So they can decide right then and there if the call is going to be worth it. But not so with uberEATS.

The only way it’s really worth it to do uberEATS is if the order is large enough that a reasonable tip will make it worth your time. And as long as the restaurant is pretty close to where you are so you don’t have to spend a lot of time getting to it. And if there is a surge. Take away any of these three factors, and it’s less worth it. Take away all these factors and you really shouldn’t even bother with uberEATS.

There is one other reason you might consider driving for uberEATS for a few minutes a day. And that is when uberX just isn’t busy. And you know it’s not going to be busy for a while. Then sure, go ahead and flip on uberEATS. You might make $5 or $6 extra bucks. But, you’ll more than likely eat up whatever you make in car expenses and stress and frustration.

For carrying the food, Uber allows you to use your own bag or Uber has a bag that you can purchase. You’d think they might give them to drivers, but as of now, you still have to purchase them. Sam says Door Dash has the best bags because they’re better insulated.

If you’re already an Uber driver, you will use the same driver app for uberEATS. You just switch into EATS mode. While customers need a separate app from the Uber rider app, drivers do not need a separate app. But you do have to register as an EATS driver with Uber before you can start.

Resources

In this video, I want to talk about two services that are in addition to the regular services of just the basic ridesharing that we do. One is very similar and the other one is different.

That is UberEats and UberPOOL and the Lyft equivalent, Lyft Line. Now, this is not going to be something many of you guys will use but it’s important for you to know about.

Some of you guys would want to utilize it. I utilize it on occasion if it’s profitable but it’s harder to be profitable. So let me break [a]part UberEats.

UberEats is a delivery service that you can do as a rideshare driver or you can just exclusively do even if you’re not a rideshare driver which can be really helpful for your friends and family members who don’t have a car that would fit for the regular UberX platform.

Now UberEats historically has not had [a] tipping [option] in the app except until most recently in July and so a lot of people are [accustomed to] not to tip. And so tipping makes all the difference in food delivery if it’s going to be worth your time and worth your bottom line.

And so I wouldn’t encourage UberEats for most people unless you want to use it as a break time. Because here’s the reality, unlike some other apps like DoorDash or Postmates, you can’t see what they’re ordering at all and so you don’t know if it’s worth your time.

They may just be wanting a burrito and there’s only so much you can get tipped on a $6 order. And so you get paid by the mile and by the job but there’s just only so much you do and so you’re kind of driving blindly.

When I think it would be helpful is if you want to take a tip or in there searching going on and so then it could be worth your time and the place [is] nearby and so basically people can order [at] different places that have opted in for UberEats. It can’t be just any restaurant.

It has to be selected ones and so they can pick and it’s pretty quick and people bring it. You can bring a bag, your own bag or you can do Uber bag that you have to purchase yourself, that is kind of this insulated bag.

I think DoorDash has the best bag to use. Okay, so that’s UberEats, it’s a separate app as a passenger or as a customer but it’s not a separate app for the driver.

So you can add UberEats on to your driver profile and accept them. I have currently taken them off but I can turn them back on if I want.

But when it comes delivery I’d rather use some other apps. UberPOOL and Lyft Line are two extremely controversial ones that I’m going to just touch on.

UberPOOL is kind of what sounds like. It’s a carpool and it’s up to four people and each stop is up to two people, Okay? So basically what it is is people who want to pay less for Uber, which it’s crazy because it’s already really cheap, and they want to go somewhere and they have extra time, what Uber will do is they’ll match different people who want to go in the same direction, okay?

So basically you request it, you share your ride with the person, and then up four people ride total. Now a lot of people hate it because until recently they increased the fares but it has been really financially hard so it’s more work, for more people, for less money.

And so it’s not in every city but it’s something that a lot of people hate because of the hassle of finagling between multiple passengers at one time other people forgetting that they did this like, “Who are these other people coming in?”

I’m gonna link in this article, “Seven reasons why I hate UberPOOL and Lyft Line” that you can look in. This will be in the notes but Lyft and POOL are very similar and I just would say avoid it if you can.

Avoid it if you can, if you just want work it could be good and perhaps they are going to continue to make it more appealing. But that’s UberPOOL, that’s Lyft Line and that’s UberEats and they’ll probably come up with more things. I know that Uber had a plan for lots of other things and so at the time of this recording those are the ones that I want to highlight.